• niktemadur@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    This applies for everybody, no matter what profession they chose.
    Now imagine putting an additional handicap on top by putting yourself in a combat situation, its’ physical and emotional aftermath.

    This goes for soldiers as well as all civilians caught in the crossfire and finding themselves being used as pawns and targets in a cruel game, as is happening currently in Ukraine and Palestine, as it happened in Syria and its’ city of Aleppo in 2016. And most recently for the American Armed Forces, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    The act of being coerced and lied to, or just plain shoved into situations of extreme violence, regarded as little more than meatbags by a powerful, greedy and blunt hand hovering behind it all.

    The experience of having to go through something like that, to have been regarded and targeted, then “processed” in such a manner, it has to create a hole in the psyche, make one question one’s self worth.

    I’m reminded of when the russian invaders in Ukraine put up billboards with photos and names of their own soldiers who refused to follow orders to participate in the invasion. Who knows what their fate was, what other extreme bullying techniques, including brutality, they might have used to try and force their meatbags to pick up their rifle and march towards the combat area.
    They didn’t engage with the defenders, but they lived through the hell of war and will carry wounds that will not heal, even supposing they found their way home.

    Once coerced, you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.